MORE than $19 million is owed to the Suva City Council for outstanding rates as of August 31, 2012.
SCC acting CEO Bijay Chand said the council would take legal action against defaulters by selling their properties to recover the arrears.
Mr Chand said the major problem was that ratepayers were not making arrangement to settle their arrears. He said measures to collect rates included advising defaulters of modes of payment, conducting public awareness, placing charges on properties, submitting names to the data bureau and taking the matter to the Small Claims Tribunal.
He said that as of August 31, they had collected more than $15m including arrears of more than $2m.